Qatar Told Hamas to Keep the Hostages
It’s time to demand that Qatar put Hamas leaders on a plane and send them to Israel. Until Qatar does so, Qatar should be considered a state sponsor of terrorism.
A few months ago, I was speaking to a group of American Jewish leaders in Jerusalem.
They had invited me to speak on a panel discussion about the “delegitimization of Israel.”
I asked the audience a question: “How many of you know that on the afternoon of October 7, 2023, while Hamas’s massacre was ongoing, Qatar condemned Israel?”
In a room of about 70 American Jewish leaders, one hand went up. One hand. It was a man who followed me on X and had seen me make this point many times.
What does this simple and forgotten point about Qatar have to do with the delegitimization of Israel? In a word: everything.
Most people have no idea that Qatar is waging a massive information warfare campaign against Israel. If you don’t know who is fighting you, how can you win?
Please understand: It’s not possible to talk about the “delegitimization of Israel” without talking about the role that Qatar plays in that delegitimization.
Know your enemy.
Since most of you are unaware of what Qatar is doing, allow me to share a few simple points.
At 3:15 p.m. Israel time on October 7, 2023, long after it was clear that Hamas was carrying out barbaric atrocities and taking hostages, the Qatari Ministry of Foreign Affairs published a statement that said Israel was “solely responsible for the ongoing escalation.” Yes, you read that right. On October 7, as Hamas terrorists were breaking into Israeli homes and livestreaming their savagery from victims’ phones, Qatar condemned Israel – not Hamas. In fact, Qatar has never publicly condemned Hamas for anything, ever.
You’ll never guess where Hamas’s leaders were on October 7. They were living comfortably in Doha, the capital of Qatar. There is video of them watching the Qatari royal family’s international television network (Al Jazeera) and prostrating themselves as they thanked God for the success of their invasion of Israel.
If Qatari government officials were anything like the civilized people that they want you to think they are, they would have walked down the street (or maybe down the stairs) to the office where Hamas leaders were celebrating and told them that the invasion and massacre were horrible and Hamas must release all of the hostages immediately. Qatari government officials did not do this.
On the contrary. There is every reason to believe that Qatari government officials celebrated the October 7 Massacre. You know what? I’ll say it without equivocation: Qatar celebrated the October 7 Massacre. I’ll stop saying it as soon as the Qatari government publicly condemns Hamas for literally anything. Let me know. Until then: Qatar celebrated the October 7 Massacre.
What was Qatar saying one day after the massacre, on October 8, 2023, after it was clear to everyone the extent of Hamas’s war crimes and crimes against humanity? We got one answer last January when Qatar’s prime minister, Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al-Thani, aka Sheikh Mohammed, sat down for an interview with Israeli journalist Arad Nir. The Qatari royal wanted to bolster Qatar’s image among the Israeli public as the benevolent and irreplaceable “mediator” between Israel and Hamas – and blame the Israeli government for the lack of a hostage deal.
Sheikh Mohammed said to Arad Nir: “We’ve been calling since the beginning, since October 8th, that we need to get this done as soon as possible.” Get what done? A deal. In other words, the Qatari government thought that the proper response to the October 7 Massacre, while Hamas terrorists were still on the loose in Israel, was a deal that would ensure that Hamas leaders would survive what they had just unleashed the day before, that Hamas’s army of terror would remain completely intact, that countless convicted Palestinian terrorists would be released from Israeli prisons, that Hamas would be in a position to carry out another massacre (or fire rockets) at a time and place of its choosing, and that Hamas’s popularity in Palestinian society would surge.
That’s what Qatar wanted to “get done” one day after Hamas terrorists gunned down hundreds of people at a music festival, burned families in their homes, and took grandmothers and toddlers as hostages. In plain English: Qatar wanted Hamas to win.
Is it not obvious? Every day, the Qatari royal family’s international television network (Al Jazeera) boosts Qatar’s information warfare campaign against Israel, in Arabic and in English. It has been wildly successful. From the beginning of the war, the phrase “genocide in Gaza” has appeared on the screen while Qatari agents in Gaza (Al Jazeera “reporters”) broadcast only the images that Hamas wanted them to broadcast. These images and messages have shaped Western public perception of the war. We’re seeing the consequences of this information warfare campaign every day. What starts on Al Jazeera does not stay on Al Jazeera.
You don’t have to take my word for it that Qatar-sponsored Hamas and Qatar-funded Al Jazeera work together. After the last Gaza war in May 2021, Hamas honored Al Jazeera for its “highly professional” coverage of the conflict.
It’s been nearly two years since the October 7 Massacre. Qatar refuses to pressure the Hamas leaders who live in Doha to order their army of terrorists to surrender, release the hostages, and end the war. There’s a reason for that. It’s because Qatar told Hamas to keep the hostages until Hamas gets a deal that allows Hamas to remain in power in Gaza.
Qatar wants Hamas to win.
It was not an accident or an aberration that Sheikha Moza bint Nasser, the mother of the emir of Qatar, praised Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, the mastermind of the October 7 Massacre, after Sinwar was killed by Israeli forces in Gaza.
“The name Yahya means the one who lives,” she wrote. “They thought him dead but he lives. Like his namesake, Yahya bin Zakariya, he will live on and they will be gone.”
Last year, a Qatari representative to the Arab League said:
“There can be no peace or negotiations with the Zionist entity, for one reason and one reason only: Their faith does not allow for negotiations. Rather it [condones] deception, the violation of agreements, and lies...
The Al Aqsa Flood operation is only the introduction to the annihilation of the corruption that the Zionist entity has spread in the land for the second time. Inshallah, this will be the beginning of the end of their state.”
Do I need to keep going?
It’s time to demand that Qatar put Hamas leaders on a plane and send them to Israel. Until Qatar does so, Qatar should be considered a state sponsor of terrorism.
Sadly, Qatar’s information warfare campaign against Israel is working. Qatar faces no reputational damage for its support of Hamas.
When Qataris are hosting panel discussions in Doha about the “delegitimization of Qatar,” then I’ll know we’re making progress.
Until then, repeat after me:
Qatar told Hamas to keep the hostages.
Founder of the IDSF General Avivi has made this point multiple times: the best way to end the war with the least amount of collateral damage is for the US to demand the extradition of Hamas leaders from Qatar.
Why has this not been done?
Best guess: $$$$
We have a military base there. We shouldn’t be protecting those sons of bitches but we are. The US should really demand that they hand over those Hamas animals.